Three Candidates In 26th District Race On Air With New Ads

BUFFALO, N.Y. --The Republican, Democratic and Tea Party candidates in the 26th Congressional District race are all on the air with new campaign commercials.

All three are mostly positive with the candidates touting their plans should they be elected.

This is Tea Party Candidate Jack Davis' first advertisement for this election. He explained his business background, how he's created jobs and how he left his company to his employees. He goes on to say the two major parties in Washington both support NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement. That is largely true, although Davis' contention that NAFTA causes jobs to be shipped overseas is up for debate.

Kathy Hochul's campaign spokesperson Fabien Levy said Corwin's record goes against her advertisement, because Corwin "had the opportunity to cut spending, including 10 percent across the board in state government, yet she voted against the budget agreement."

Corwin's campaign responded by saying Corwin voted against 4 of the 5 budget appropriation bills because they didn't cut enough.

Finally, Kathy Hochul's latest commercial is under fire from Buffalo Activist Rus Thompson, who is a supporter of Jane Corwin. Thompson released a statement saying Hochul's ad, which deals with her efforts to remove the toll barriers in Buffalo, "is an insult to all taxpayers."

Thompson said, "It was not until Carl Paladino and Mike Powers actually did the research, revealed that state law clearly prevented the collection of tolls... and brought a lawsuit to bring them to an end, that the tolls came down."

That is likely true, although the Thruway Authority voted to remove the tolls before the lawsuit went through the court system.

However, 2 On Your Side determined Hochul's ad was true, because it only said, "Kathy Hochul became the stop-the-tolls pioneer." It did not say that Kathy Hochul led the effort or was single-handedly responsible for their removal.

Hochul was one of the first local politicians to bring up the barriers and the need to remove them. Channel 2 interviewed her on the topic as early as 1999.

It will be up to voters whether to agree with Thompson that Hochul is trying to take more credit for the toll barrier removal than she actually deserved.

A fourth candidate who will appear on the ballot, Ian Murphy of the Green Party, has yet to air any television commercials.